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Boss frogmarches bound employee to cop shop

With 'thief' sign round his neck

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An Essex boss who discovered one of his employees had stolen and cashed a company cheque frogmarched the miscreant to a police station with his hands tied behind his back and a sign round his neck reading "thief", the Times reports.

Carpet fitter Mark Gilbert, 39, swiped the cheque from Witham-based In House Flooring, wrote it out for £845 and "cashed it for holiday spending money". The cheque subsequently bounced, since it was from a redundant business account, and when the crime was discovered, Gilbert says he was "punched and threatened with tools" before being subjected to the march of shame through Witham town centre.

He confessed to his crime and was cautioned, but his boss Simon Cremer, 44, was himself arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment. Cremer claims there was "no violence" and he'd "bound Mr Gilbert’s hands for his own protection in case he fought back".

Cremer and three other workers also suspected of false imprisonment yesterday answered bail at Braintree Police Station in Essex "hoping they too would received cautions from police", the East Anglian Daily Times explains.

They were reportedly "stunned" when they were charged and will now appear Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on 10 December.

Cremer said: “We have been charged with false imprisonment. I'm pretty gutted to be honest, I can't believe the police system. I cannot believe that someone can do that and receive a caution and I've been charged with false imprisonment. I'm shocked.” ®